Stroke Prevention

Because stroke can affect your brain in many different ways, your care after a stroke is different from anyone else's. Preventing more strokes might be as simple as taking aspirin and controlling stroke risk factors, such as blood pressure or smoking, for the rest of your life. It might be more complicated. For example, some people need additional medical treatment or surgery to prevent more strokes.

Controlling your risk of stroke

Controlling your stroke risk factors means avoiding habits and medical conditions that make you more likely to have another stroke. To control your risk factors, you can:

Treat circulation issues (problems with the way blood circulates in your body)

Women’s stroke risk

A woman’s stroke risk is different than a man’s. Stroke is the third leading cause of death for women (in comparison, stroke is the fifth leading cause of death for men). There are unique risk factors that women face that they need to be aware of, including:

Taking birth control pills The greatest concern about using oral contraceptives is for women with additional risk factors, such as age, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure or diabetes.

Being pregnant Stroke risk increases during a normal pregnancy due to natural changes in the body such as increased blood pressure and stress on the heart.